Indi is my purebred English Springer Spaniel born on 14th May 2008. He came to us also very unexpectedly, thats another story altogether. Basically, his mum was very nervous and the whole of his litter turned out nervous. The breeders were your typical money-grabbing, not caring about puppies breeders. It was never set to be an easy ride.
As a puppy everytime he saw another dog he would literally yelp and scream. The funny thing is, once when he did this an owner of a Springer said ‘mine used to do the same’ and when he was older we bumped into a puppy and that puppy did the exact same thing. Unfortunately, we had 2 bad experiences that caused it to turn from just being scared to being reactive and aggressive. He was attacked twice, first chased by a huge black staffie which scared the life out of him, then attacked by a dog at flyball. The first few walks after that were horrible as he started running at other dogs and barking. I was 14, I had no idea how to handle something like that. We were told lots of bad methods, and had some people scream at him (flyball) and as a puppy one person used the dominance method on him. He became reactive to people too after one man tried to put a muzzle on him at flyball. Who can blame him? I feel awful as it was my fault.
Once we ditched flyball, we finally started making good decisions. We started using BAT (Behaviour Adjustment Training)
and counter conditioning. We tried agility, but due to having a phobia of tunnels he soon after developed a phobia of agility altogether. But that was my fault for not training tunnels as thoroughly as I should have with such a fearful dog. I learnt from it, and hopefully the next time we enter a ring (if we ever do) it will be a much more positive experience. But, we wont return to sports again until we have worked on his reactivity and confidence.
He is the most difficult dog I have ever owned, and my 2nd dog so its not easy. I am training him entirely on my own with advice from trainers online. To some trainers this will sound awful as most think it only works to see the dog in person. But actually, I have learnt so much and sometimes I think more because instead of watching a trainer do one thing and copying it, I am taking advice and using it to establish my own methods with him. His lead training has been one very long process with lots of trial and error, but without it I would not have learnt as much about him as I have and still am. Its exactily the same with his reactivity, recalls and even tricks. He is not easy, and definantly doesn’t follow the same rules as most dogs, but because of that he has taught me the most and continues to.
We have good and bad days. The good days make all the hard work worth it, the bad days make me wonder if its all worth it and question my abilities, but they teach me and make me improve. We have only been training with good methods since March 2011 so its very much trial and error. But, every little improvement makes me smile so much and makes all the hard work worth it. He has pushed me to tears, dragged me over, pulled me in the road after a leaf, bitten me and embarassed me more times than I can count. Through it all, he has taught me more than any other dog and continues to teach me so much. He is the one who pushed me to change methods and become a positive dog trainer, not only sports-wise but behaviour-wise too. For that I, and my future dogs, will be forever grateful to him.
He is an absolutely incredible dog. He is scared of just about everything, but watching him progress and become more trusting and confident is one of the best things in the world. He absolutely adores tricks, but isn’t much of a thinker and prefers the easier ones that he can just be lured into doing 
. He is fantastic at spinning, loves reversing and has a super speedy leg weave. At Paws in the Park 2010 he performed in the ‘My Dogs 
Got Talent’ off-lead with dogs walking around the ring and people watching. He forgot about all of them things, and just worked his socks off. He just loves working with me 
. That’s what made him so good at flyball and agility, despite his fears and phobia’s. When doing what he truly loves he is able to forget about everything and just put his heart into it.
He loves to run, loves to swim and loves to be a Spaniel. He’s not had the easiest first few years, but now he is finally learning that he can just relax and trust me. I feel extremely guilty for the first few years, but we have come out on the other side and are both learning so much.
When out with the other 2 dogs he is my most focused on me dog, which has made him a great teacher to Kez on teaching her not to harass him . He is my most loyal dog and is my only dog who will not go running over to someone else he knows if they call him but will stay entirely focused on me instead. We still have a long way to go, but together were getting there. He is an absolutely fantastic dog, and despite everything keeps on smiling .
